Nine Lives Left to Live
by thatpinkrose
Summary: All humans have one life. All cats have nine lives. But when the two are combined, they still only have one story.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer:** I wonder if there are any lawyers on this site looking to sue poor innocent children...

Well, I own everything that you don't recognize. Which includes the theory because I've never seen anyone else with this idea before.

* * *

Night had descended on the castle surrounding it in a darkness that held the secrets of the nocturnal.

Anyone up at this late hour would have good reason for being as nervous as one lone first year who had wandered away from the warmth of her common room to search for her missing life long companion, a.k.a. Mr. Snuffles the teddy bear.

With each step she tried to push cruel images out of her mind that had evolved from bone-chilling stories of werewolves, snakes, and dementors that roamed the school's halls after curfew looking to feast on weak and defenseless children. As an added worry, the student, who last year was nothing more then a common muggle, was still adapting to the idea that at any random moment a ghost could randomly pop out of nowhere and fly right through you. And by adapting to the idea, we mean she ran away as fast as she could screaming whenever she saw one.

But despite the overwhelming fear inside of her, she had to go on. It wouldn't be fair to Mr. Snuffles to just leave him to face the night alone, he'd get scarred, and cold, and what if something should happen to him? Besides, the child wouldn't be able to fall asleep without him safely in her arms.

The castle seemed bigger at night, with all the silently moving stairs and deserted hall ways; it would be easy to get lost. Her frightened brown eyes darted in every direction seeking some source of comfort. But all that met her gaze was a confusing jumble of passageways, windows and furniture that wasn't the least bit familiar to her.

She began to panic, her breath coming on heavy, her face twisting with fright. Where was she? Surely this wasn't the way to the Great Hall-where she was almost positive her bear was loyally waiting for her. Reality hit as her stomach dropped. She was hopelessly lost.

At this moment her adrenaline level skyrocketed as thoughts swarmed her mind. She was lost and was going to fail to rescue Mr. Snuffles from an almost certain death by some terrible thing. What-ever-it-was would probably get her too. She might die. She didn't want to die-a rather shocking opinion. Her vision fogged as her eyes become speckled with tears. Was this really the end? It couldn't be. She'd miss mommy and daddy and Suzie and Carol and-what was that?

Her short brown ponytails whipped from side to side as she searched for the creator of the sound, that almost inaudible thud. But she heard it, it was there, right?

There it was again! Her legs shook, her spine tingled, how could it be she felt so cold but her hands were sweating? Now she was sure she heard it, sure it was coming for her. Perhaps if she didn't move it wouldn't see her. The tiny frame stood frozen as she desperately tried to silence her heavy breath. If she wasn't seen or heard the thing would go away, right?

THUD!

Wrong.

She was torn in fright. Her mind was screaming "Run!" but her legs remained as heavy as lead. She couldn't run, she couldn't hide, she would die and no one would hear her screams echo down the-

"Mew"

The alarming thoughts that had raced through her head were suddenly gone, replaced by a refreshing bit of reality. Cautiously, the still wide eyes worked their gaze to the floor, not a hundred percent sure of what they would find.

A cat.

The tiny body almost crumpled to the floor with relief. It was a cat, that and nothing more. It was quite a cute one too, tiny with a thick coat of lusty ginger fur. True, its face was a bit squashed, but in the eyes of the little girl, that only added to her affection for the creature. Of course, when one is alone and lost in the middle of the night, most anything that isn't trying to kill you looks somewhat appealing.

"I'm glad it's just you little kitty," the girl's voice was soft and sweet like her demeanor, (obviously she was the one speaking, although at a place like Hogwarts a talking cat may not have been so uncommon) and the words were spoken like a sigh of relief. "I thought it was something scary, but I'm glad it's just you. Do you want to help me look for Mr. Snuffles?"

Still being young, even for her age, the girl still had some kind of hope deep inside of her that animals could comprehend what she was saying, and this one certainly seemed to. It cocked its head as if paying attention, the huge green eyes full of some kind of understanding. Or was that just hunger?

"You see," she went on feeling the need to explain, "I've lost my most favoritest bear in the whole world and I think I left him in the Great Hall and I was going to look for him there but I got lost and I don't know how to get back." She stared at the cat for a moment, waiting to see its response, or lack of response as the feline remained still for a few moments. Then, all at once, the cat stood up off its hind legs and began to walk down a corridor slightly to her right.

"Don't leave!" The girl cried running after the cat. The ball of fur stopped, waited for the girl to catch up, and then started off again.

"Do you know where you're going?"

"Mew"

She could have died from excitement. This cat seemed to respond to her, and (she prayed) was leading her to the Great Hall.

"Alright," she said in cheery tones, "I'm following you!"

---

The same green eyes darted back to make sure the girl was still following. Yep. Good thing the she had found her or else the poor girl would have been really lost. How on earth did this girl manage to get about half a castle away from her destination in the first place? Obviously she was a first year, but you'd even expect them to have the route down by now. School had started three months ago, and everyone went to the Great Hall roughly three times a day.

The procession of cat, girl, and oversized bear was heading from the Great Hall toward the Hugglepuff Common Room. It figured, where else would the girl have been placed? Too dim for Ravenclaw, too adorable and innocent for Slytherin. And the recently rescued definitely wasn't a Gryffindor, or else she would have recognized the girl. No, 'he', he would have recognized her, stupid gender changing complications. No matter how often she did the spell, he was always a cat. She'd rather be an 'it' then a 'he.' Not that there was anything wrong with the male gender, it just seemed slightly… wrong.

The cat glanced around trying to make out the surroundings. Lets see, 'he' was sure the Hugglepuff common room was somewhere around here, but where? Time to act cute and dumb. Squatting down on hind legs it gave the girl its best innocent look, slightly cocking the head and making the eyes go blank as if to say "Okay, it's your turn to figure out where to go."

As if on cue the girl's eyes went from the cat to the surrounding hallway. Suddenly, a look of intelligence leaped across her face, lighting up her features.

"I know where we are!" she whispered in a hushed squeal. "Oh thank you so much kitty!" She leaned down and began stroking its silky fur. A smile spread across the cat's crumpled face. Good, the girl didn't expect him to lead her anymore. As beneficial as it would be to learn the password of the Hugglepuff Common Room as well as a refresher course on where it was, she/he/it was growing tired. Besides, the feline already knew the location and password for the Syltherin Common Room, and more interesting conversations dripping with gossip could be heard there then the Huggepuff's. With a final scratch between the ears from the girl's small hands, the cat dashed off leaving the child and bear behind.

---

Had one followed its path back through the castle they would have seen a flash of ginger duck behind a rather large statue of some ancient wizard. His stone arms were spread out in front of him as if about to cast a spell with his hands, creating a nice sized hiding spot behind him.

This was where the creature stopped. Green eyes scanned the deserted hall, and then shut as the wrinkles on the face deepened, full focus being poured into a single thought.

In one fluid movement the forelegs of the feline began to rise as if it was trying to stand up. The backbone straightened until the back was no longer at an angle with the legs, which had now grown in length. The ginger fur was evaporating into slightly tanned skin, with the exception of the back of the head where the fur grew longer and made the subtle change into thick strands of brown hair with a tinge of orange. The forelegs had lengthened into arms, paws stretched and thinned into fingers, and palms blossomed. Shoulders sprung out of the back, ears sunk from the tops of the head to the sides and turned from tiny triangles to something of an oval. The face lengthened, making the once crumpled skin smooth and even. Whiskers disappeared into a growing nose which had lost its rosy tinge. Red lips popped out of the mouth without warning.

Ten thousand changes took place in the blink of an eye, each moving with a coordinated precision that could only be the work of long hours studying the magic behind the motions.

It was not a cat, but a girl of seventeen who stepped out from behind the statue a minute later and hurried down the hall with black robes flowing behind her for fear someone would catch her wandering around at this late hour.


	2. Marauder's Girls

**Disclaimer:** I own every Nancy Drew in hardcover from 1 to 56.

But I don't own anything that sounds like it came from a person who goes by the name JK Rowling.

So you can't sue me.

Ha ha.

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"Peachiekeens" 

The word was mixed with a rush of air as the Fat Lady, still rubbing sleep from her eyes, swung the portrait aside revealing the entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room. Ella slipped in hoping the no one had seen her transf—

"Miss Daveien."

The stern voice that echoed across the room held an authority that made the teen begin to panic. A barely audible gasp escaped her mouth; Ella's green eyes darted over to the sound of the stern voice. The fear that someone would stumble across her secret, she was unregistered after all, constantly played with her nerves, lurking at the back of her mind.

The words had come from the couch in front of the fireplace which, at the moment, was the resting place of a rather large lump jiggling up and down with laughter.

Laughter?

The soft light emitted from the last of the burning flames fell upon black locks perfectly framing a male face, corners of his mouth turned up as he tried to suppress the burst of laughter welled up inside of him.

Sirius Black.

Her frame relaxed, but her eyes darted to slits shooting daggers at the boy as she herself plopped down on the couch. She was the prankster's easiest target, easily spooked and quite gullible despite her display of knowledge in the classroom.

Ella had actually dated what was now the most sought after figure in the school, but that had been back when they were only fourth years, and the relationship lasted three snogging sessions and a week before the romantic vibe turned into one of friendship.

The fact Ella was an animagus went unknown for only a few weeks after Sirius and she had mutually dumped each other. The Maruaders, in a moment of what all sensitive females would describe as "pure cruelty," had decided to see if a cat really did land on all fours when dropped from the height of a decent sized tree. It was pure chance that they picked a ginger tabby with a scrunched face, which happened to transform (in the cover of leafy branches, a difficult thing to do) into a nasty tempered female that was afraid of heights.

The incident, after the shock had worn off, sparked an idea in the scheming mind of James Potter who came up with the brilliant plan that he, Sirius, and Peter should become animagi, too. As they explained to Ella later that day after apologizing to her several times, transforming into animals would be perfect for pulling pranks and sneaking out of the castle at night in search of adventure.

"You already are animals," she'd pointed out.

"Yes," James had said taking the joke with good humor, "But we need your help to become animagi."

"And Remus?" she asked mildly surprised the fourth member of the group hadn't been mentioned.

"He doesn't care for becoming an animagus," Sirius said, feeding her the lie the boys had come up with earlier. For good measure he added, "And he can help out with the pranks under James's invisibility cloak."

For this he was jammed in the ribs by his friend's elbow for accidentally spilling one of the Maruader's best kept secrets. But Ella bought the story, and the work began.

The research and practice that was required to learn the spell took more time and effort then the boys bargained for. Still, the learning progressed at a quick rate. Ella helped them every once and a while, never knowing the true reason for the long hours of work, never guessing Remus's monthly problem.

It had all worked out in the end. And there were nights far from the full moon dedicated to pranking, snooping, and adventure seeking, where Ella would join the Marauders with Remus under the invisibility cloak. Aside from these nights she was not close friends with their group; perhaps even friends would be too strong a word for their once-in-a-while nightly outings. But it didn't matter so long as the secret of the four was kept. And so far, it had been.

Turning to face the room's new occupant Sirius struck up the conversation. "So, spying on the Slytherins again, or looking for mice?"

"Helping first years find Mr. Snuffles," Ella said squirming around on the couch trying to find a comfortable position.

Sirius briefly perked up at a name as whimsical as Mr. Snuffles. "Should I ask?"

"No," Ella replied, "Because I'm too tired to go through it all. By the way, what are you doing up so late?"

Had the room been flooded with light perhaps the question would not have been asked in such a casual tone, for Sirius looked like he needed either a nap or a paper bag to cover his face. The sparkle that could usually be seen in his grey eyes was missing and the reason was related to the dark circles that surrounded the peepers. His skin was paler then normal, and his entire face was weighed down with a plight that had to do with the full moon.

Tonight had been Moony's painful transformation and whether it was the nippy November chill or something else brewing in the night, Remus's werewolf form was more ferocious and uncontrollable then ever before. It had taken every last bit of strength to herd the beast back to the Shrieking Shack much earlier then usual due to a nasty swipe on James's back caused by a giant werewolf claw. In fact, the mentioned boy was now in the informatory being treated for the bloody streaks that shot off bullets of pain with each muscle movement.

Who knew what had possessed Remus to suddenly lash out against the familiar stag? Any other full moon and Sirius may not have been so worried, but lately Moony had been, well, moody. Moony, moody, Sirius mentally chuckled as the thought flashed across his mind.

"What are you laughing at?"

Oops, the chuckling hadn't been mental after all. The adolescent blamed the embarrassment he was feeling right now on the fact he was tired.

"Nothing," Sirius said answering Ella's latter question.

"Couldn't sleep?" she asked, still wondering why Sirius was up starring nonchalantly at the last of the burning embers.

"Yeah," Sirius said in a plain voice revealing his tiredness.

The two sat there quietly, hypnotized by the silence of the night. Several minutes passed before Sirius broke the silence.

"By the way, you owe me ten galleons."

"What?" The response was somewhere between a yelp and a sound in such high wavelengths that only dogs could hear it.

"Yep," Sirius said, a smile creeping up the corners of his mouth and into his voice, "Tonight marked the six hundred and twenty ninth time James asked Lily out."

"Really?" Ella's calm voice was mixed with fake excitement and curiosity, "That's something you don't hear everyday, James asking Lily out."

"It's something you hear every other day," Sirius said, "But you've never heard Lily say yes."

"Neither have you," Ella pointed out, lacking a good comeback.

"Ah, yes," Sirius said, his voice taking on the tone of one who was speaking with a secret wisdom, "But our dear James has."

It took Ella a minute to brush off the sleepy feeling enough to understand what these words meant, but once they did, her heavy eyelids disappeared and her eyes widened with surprise.

"You don't mean that…"

"Yep," Sirius said, "She finally said yes. Actually, I think there was more snogging then talking but they're officially dating."

In true female fashion Ella released another high pitched squeal, after, of course squashing one of the couch's decorative pillows to her mouth as to not wake the entire castle up.

"So," Sirius stated again amused at her behavior, "You owe me ten galleons."

"Wafur?" she teased him, speaking the words with the pillow still muffling her voice, making the sounds unintelligible to Sirius who snatched the fluffy item out of her hands in an equally teasing manner.

"What for?" Ella repeated again trying to delay giving Sirius anything for as long as she could.

"Our little bet. I said Lily would say yes after James asked her five hundred and sixty-three times and you though she'd say yes after seven hundred ninety-one times. I'm closer," he explained with a satisfied smirk.

"But she didn't say yes, she kissed him."

"Actually, I think he kissed her first," Sirius said getting sidetracked. Ella was in no rush to get him back on the topic of the bet.

"Let's wake them up and get the story," she suggested in a perky voice that didn't seem to fit the time of night, unless alcohol was involved of course. Sirius was about to agree and suggest using a bucket of cold water when he recalled that James wouldn't be in his normal Heads bedroom. Once again, the entire night and the past week of Remus's depressed mood knocked the thrill out of him. His back ached and every muscle in his body, especially those in his eyelids, begged for rest. A yawn overtook his face, giving Ella a hint that the conversation would have to be continued in the morning, or, seeing as it was an early hour already, after the two had gotten some shut eye.

Sirius stirred from his position first, clumsily getting to his feet.

"You know," he said drowsily pulling a random topic out of the air, "We're going to have to have another animagi night soon."

Ella stretched her arms out in front of her, one of her more cat-like moments. "Well Padfoot, could you figure out a date with Prongs and Wormtail? Just not the twenty-second or the fifth of next month, Moony and I've got perfect duty stuff." Ella let the words roll of her tongue without much concern for proper grammar.

"Consider it done, hon." Sirius said, and then once again gave a little laugh in the back of his mind at the rhyming words.

"What's so funny?" Ella asked him upon hearing the chortles, beginning to wonder if the lack of sleep was affecting Sirius' brain.

Damn it, he really needed to address that laughing problem soon.

Trying to shrug of his stupidity Sirius began to ascend the stairs to the boy's dorms, but only reached step number two before giving one last comment to the figure still reluctant to leave the warmth of the couch where she'd gotten quite cozy.

"You still owe me ten galleons."

Ella looked up into Sirius's eyes, her own green ones holding an I-really-could-care-less glare, but when she spoke her voice was like a purr.

"Night Padfoot."

He began to climb the steps again, but his words still reached the Common Room.

"Night Crookshanks."


End file.
